(CNSNews.com) – Chai R. Feldblum, nominated by President Barack Obama to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), has argued that homosexual sex is “morally good” and that government should foster all types of domestic partnerships, including “non-sexual” ones.

At a UCLA law school symposium in 2004, Feldblum said that homosexual activists need to do more than just pursue equality for same-sex relationships because advancing the homosexual agenda also “requires a statement that gay sex is morally good.”

“Now, you may think that might be a little crazy to go out there and say, ‘Gay sex is good.’ But think about it for a second. Society definitely believes that heterosexual sex is good, right? Heterosexual sex within a certain framework--marriage--I mean you can’t get more dewy-eyed and romantic in this society about how wonderful that is,” Feldblum told the University of California at Los Angeles audience.

The statements were part of a panel discussion titled, “Election 2004: The Gay Vote, Gay Marriage, and the Prospect for Gay Rights Legislation.”

Feldblum explained that Americans have a high regard for sex within marriage because they see it as a cornerstone of a healthy society.

“Then if you’re not being cynical, for the moment, I think that does reflect a correct understanding that sex is often a basic building block for intimacy,” she said, “and that intimacy and connections within couples and within families are integral building blocks for a healthy society.”

Feldblum is a professor at Georgetown University Law School and director of the Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic. She earned her law degree from Harvard and was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackman, noted for being the author of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

If confirmed, she would become one of five commissioners on the EEOC, which enforces federal equal opportunity laws based on its interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act, and others.

Her argument at the UCLA symposium, she said, “is based on acknowledging that not all types of discrimination are bad--that some discrimination is rightfully made against those who engage in morally reprehensible behavior.”

But Feldblum said the key to advancing homosexual rights is asking people to confront whether they think gay sex is immoral. The agenda, she says, should be advanced “using the weapon of moral values, and I think this effort has to happen alongside the current effort, which is using the weapons of equality.”

Later in the symposium at UCLA, Feldblum laid out the syllogism for her argument for gay rights and benefits for gay couples:

“One, moral values are important to a healthy society; two, intimate relationships between individuals and in family structures are critical moral and political units that can create a healthy society,” she said. “Three, it’s the government’s responsibility to nurture these moral and political units; four, people in opposite sex relationships and people in same-sex relationships equally embody this moral good and equally deserve support from public policies (OK, so a subset of this would be gay sex is just as good as heterosexual sex, and also: gay people, just like straight people, are more than just about sex); and five, our current public policies undermine the moral and political unit of same-sex couples and families, and that’s a moral wrong that needs to be rectified.”

In past writings, Feldblum has not stopped at suggesting that only gay couples should receive support from the government.

In a 2005 paper, “Gay is good: the moral case for marriage equality and more,” Feldblum wrote that people in unmarried sexual relationships, and those she calls “non-sexual domestic partners (NSDPs),” who may or may not live together, should receive government support.

“These intimate structures currently exist as a reality—and their forced invisibility by the state is a moral harm,” she wrote.

“A NSDP can be a daughter caring for a mother, two sisters living together, or four older women retiring together. The term ‘domestic’ is used here to denote a level of caring and commitment for the other person(s) in the relationship. What these relationships share is intimacy, but it is not the type of intimacy arrived at or maintained through sex.

“NSDPs exist everywhere and are recognized almost nowhere. Indeed, often such relationships are provided with no name or acknowledgement other than ‘friend,’ even by the participants themselves. But that is unfortunate. Friendships are key for human development. But there are different levels of commitment along the spectrum of friends, and we would do well, as a society, to recognize that continuum,” Feldblum wrote.

Feldblum argued that nonsexual groupings were socio-political units to be “nurtured” just like heterosexual and homosexual couples.

“The same moral duty that requires the state to support marriage relationships and non-marital sexual relationships should be extended to support NSDPs,” she wrote.

Fledblum said the state should provide “logistical support” that would reflect whatever level of “interdependence” the grouping chose..

“For example, I am in a NSDP with three other women. One of the women is raising a child as a single parent and the rest of us help with childcare as necessary. We take each other to the doctor; we take each other to the airport; we leave work early when someone needs help. There is no sexual relationship among the four of us, but there is an explicit and acknowledged commitment to care among the four of us.”

Feldblum concluded: “(T)the state has an obligation to recognize and support these non-sexual domestic partnerships.”

Feldblum helped draft the Americans with Disabilities Act, enacted in 1990, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which is still being considered by Congress and would prevent employer discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. If ENDA became law, Feldblum would then enforce it as part of the EEOC.

“Gay is Good” was published in the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, volume 17.1, and begins on page 139.

CNSNews.com has made repeated requests to Feldblum’s Georgetown office for comment, which have not been answered.